The Slippage

A Novel

About the Book

The Slippage is a wry, wistful tale of marriage, lust, and disconnection from Ben Greenman, the critically acclaimed author of What He’s Poised to Do.

William Day must confront some uncomfortable truths about his life and his future when his wife Louisa asks him to build her house. The take-it-or-leave-it demand becomes all the more difficult to swallow when he finds himself grappling with a past recklessness, an ex-girlfirend’s son he considers his own, and his own wants for what lies ahead.

Sure to appeal to everyone who has ever been in love and had their heart broken, The Slippage shares uncanny truths about intimacy and modern relationships.

Book Description

William and Louisa Day are a suburban husband and wife, with no children, confronting the question of what their relationship means to them and if and how it will survive. One day, after weeks of bizarre behavior—disappearing in the middle of parties, hoarding mail—Louisa approaches William with a stark request: "I want you to build us a house." Caught off guard, William is suddenly forced to reckon with his own hopes and desires, his growing discomfort at home and work, and, in the end, his wife's fight-or-flight ultimatum. The result is an emotionally powerful novel, marked by Ben Greenman's trademark blend of yearning and mordant wit.

Educator and Librarian Resources

Critical Praise

“In The Slippage, Ben Greenman illuminates the strange, electric moments that lurk in the seemingly ordinary milieus of the suburban kitchen, the married bedroom. With compassion and dark humor, Greenman brings the absurdity and grace of marriage vividly to life.” —

“Ben Greenman’s The Slippage is a slyly funny and heartbreaking portrait of suburban American marriage, like an update of John Cheever in an age of smartphones and rampant corporate greed. This stellar novel asks whether it’s ever possible to see clearly-in love, life, or art.” —

“With The Slippage, Ben Greenman proves what many of us suspected: he’s one of our best writers, and he can do anything...It’ll be the book of the year.” —

“Ben Greenman’s relentlessly funny novel engages with the mystery whereby a seemingly sane man can take steps to simultaneously solidify and destroy his life. Greenman is a brilliant and wry stenographer.” —

“Reminiscent of the greatest, elegiac work of William Maxwell, Greenman’s book is a reminder of the ways we fail, in love, and find grace in even that failure. This is truly a beautiful book.” —

“Ben Greenman’s The Slippage turns backyard barbecues and suburban playgrounds into tense and charged territory. . . . If Emma Bovary had lived in the ‘burbs, she would have left a story like this in her wake.” —

“The Slippage is a terrific novel, a wry and affecting depiction of an America adrift in its tidy cul de sacs of anxiety, lust, and disappointment. Ben Greenman writes crackling dialogue, brilliant characters, and sentences so sharp they hurt.” —

“Greenman’s style will appeal to those who appreciate literary fiction that succinctly yet eloquently dissects the contemporary American marriage.” —

“Greenman has a knack for chronicling the uncertain angst of suburban life. . . [He] has crafted one of the more surprising and remarkable opening scenes in this year’s bumper crop of contemporary realism.” —

“Mr. Greenman conjures the world of his characters in transporting detail . . . [His] keen descriptions, coupled with Mr. Greenman’s wry wit and inventive turns of phrase[,] are antidotes to the bleak narrative and make this novel difficult to put down.” —

“Soccer moms and backyard barbecuers beware: Sleepy suburbia is about to get a wake-up call in The Slippage, a new novel from Ben Greenman. . . . His sharp insights into suburban claustrophobia and impotent rage are highlighted by striking images and well-tooled prose.” —

“Ben Greenman fascinatingly explores marriage malaise and suburban sadness. . . . Greenman brilliantly teases out the ache and tenacity underneath the everyday grind of the Days and the couples they know. . . . Greenman’s suburbs are lush with longing, and he captures solitude with an expert’s strokes.” —

“A wonderful, insightful, gleefully confident novel.” —

“Ben Greenman, prolific writer of experimental fiction, has written his own version of the Great American Novel.” —

“…wry… In fluid and commanding prose, Greenman depicts this disconnected couple caught in the undertow of their unfulfilled early 40s. … the success of The Slippage lies in [a] hazy, in-between state of being. . .” —

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